Carrie Underwood Celebrating Thanksgiving as a Family for the First Time

Carrie Underwood will be cooking to impress her Canadian husband this Thanksgiving, because it’s the first time the retired ice hockey star will be home for the U.S. holiday.

Former Nashville Predators captain Mike Fisher hung up his jersey for good in August (17), and his country singer wife is excited to celebrate the weekend’s festivities together as a family, seven years after tying the knot.

“For I think the first time in our relationship, my husband will actually be around for Thanksgiving, because he was a hockey player and he’s retired now, so we went to Canadian Thanksgiving (in October), and now I get our Thanksgiving… I get two Thanksgivings!” the mother-of-one shared with glee.

“I’ll get to cook for him. He’s never seen my Thanksgiving skills. I plan so far in advance and I have all my recipes, and I’ll, like, chop everything the night before and put it in baggies and stuff like that, so I can just (throw it all in the oven on Thanksgiving).”

Carrie’s Thanksgiving spread isn’t quite the traditional turkey feast as she is vegan, so she usually prepares the meat substitute Tofurkey.

“Someone else will bring the turkey,” she said. “I don’t know what I’m doing with that, that would be a nightmare!”

Despite going all out for her family for the holiday, the musician admits she is always trying to cut a few calories from dishes wherever she can.

She recently discussed her holiday food plans with pal Brad Paisley’s wife Kimberly Williams, but her calorie counting left the actress stunned.

“We swap out ingredients, ’cause I’ll be like, ‘Ooh, I can save calories and fat by like, swapping this…’ and she’s looking at me like, ‘No, girl!’” Carrie laughed, before defending her actions by protesting,

“But if I take a little bit out of everything else, then I can have dessert!”

The singer might need a little extra help in the kitchen this Thanksgiving as she’s still recovering from surgery after falling at home and breaking her wrist. She was thankful to her husband last week (ends17Nov17) after he dashed back to Tennessee to nurse Carrie when he heard she had been hospitalized.